REFLECTIONS ON IDENTITY FOLLOWING BRAIN INJURY
Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Until Sat 22 June
Reflections On Brain Injury is a collaborative enterprise that sees brain injury survivor and project manager Emma Brunton, photographer Lee Aspland, The Health and Well-being Academy at Swansea University and the Brain Injury Service (Swansea Bay UHB) exhibit at the Elysium Gallery, Swansea.
Reflecting on propositions of identity before, immediately after and once an extended amount of time has lapsed, the exhibition aims to represent what it is to be yourself after a major trauma. In exploring these questions of identity to its maximum potential, the exhibition is to be split into three parts corresponding with the stages of trauma: Reflections On Identity Before Brain Injury, Reflections On Identity Immediately After Brain Injury and Reflections On Identity Long Term. Through the process of dividing these chronologically defined episodes, we’ll hopefully see a comprehensive window into how the self-ascription of identity changes from before brain trauma to a long-while after. It aims to provide an insight into the world of brain injury, and its long-term effects on people, to those who may not necessarily have any prior knowledge of it.
The exhibition is set to showcase the photography of everyday people who have survived brain injury. It plans to showcase real people’s struggles with the formation of selfhood, something most of us take for granted when we wake in the morning. It promises to be an arresting, thought-provoking and ultimately heartwrenching insight into propositions of identity.
Set for a run of just under a month and exclusive to this gallery, Reflections… is one of four photographic exhibitions going on at the gallery this month alongside the ESPY Photography Award and works by Mohamed Hassan and Shelly Hopkins. This exhibition is also is also the first in the venue’s YOURSPACE series. YOURSPACE is led by Swansea communities and promotes the learning of new skills and social development within the community whilst championing the creative and independent sectors of the city. Thus, Reflections… is set to be an eye-opening exhibition into a relatively unknown world.
words Gareth Mitchell
Admission: free. Info: 07980 925449 / www.elysiumgallery.com
